Image Credit: Yahoo Sport
By Lee Clow
14 September 2019 | Premier League
Tottenham rekindled their form of the 2016/17 season as they battered Crystal Palace 4-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Having started the season poorly, Mauricio Pochettino's men finally burst into life with a thumping first-half display where goals from Heung-Min Son (10 & 23), Erik Lamela (42) and a Patrick van Aanholt own goal (21) tore apart Roy Hodgson's side. Crystal Palace had no reply to Spurs and rarely threatened the goal earning Tottenham a first clean sheet of the season.
Very reminiscent to a few seasons back when Spurs would heavily punish teams in the first half, Tottenham started brightly against Palace and brought back the ‘PochBall’ style of play that had been so successful. With only 10 minutes on the clock, Spurs took the lead after easily unlocking Palace’s defence. A simple ball over the top from Toby Alderweireld was enough to cut open Palace’s backline and release Son who cleverly cut inside and fired low past Guaita in goal. The goal was met by huge celebration by the Spurs fans who had gone into the game with low expectations having started the season so poorly.
After the goal Tottenham continued to dominate and a second goal was inevitably about to come. Some good build up play lead to the ball being passed out wide to Aurier who’s attempted cross was deflected past his own goalkeeper by Van Aanholt on 21 minutes. As the ball hit the back of the net, Tottenham had the game all wrapped up, but it did not stop them from punishing Palace even more.
Two minutes later it was 3-0 to Spurs as they finished off a nice flowing move that started from goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. Serge Aurier, who was making his first appearance of the season, was once again played in down the right and crossed in a beautiful ball towards Son who perfectly volleyed past Guaita to score his second and Tottenham’s third. Son’s two goals today now means he has scored 5 goals against Palace in his career.
With confidence oozing through their veins Tottenham found a fourth goal and rubbed more salt in Palace’s wounds. Harry Kane provided the service this time when he excellently put in a damaging cross towards Lamela who slid in to score his first home goal in over a year. Tottenham fans were in huge delight with their sides first half having not seen this type of performance since their title challenging season back in 2016/17.
During the second half, Tottenham slightly took their foot off the accelerator, with no more goals to show, but they still kept their heads as they prevented Palace from taking away their clean sheet. The match ended with huge uproars by the Spurs fans who finally witnessed their side hitting their stride this season.
The victory for Tottenham is huge as it finally kicks starts their season and pushes them up to third in the table. For Palace, it is a day to forget as they fall down the table to 11th having gained 7 points from the opening 5 games.
In his press conference, Mauricio Pochettino was in huge praise for his side’s performance today. "The attitude was amazing, and the performance was really good - we were very concentrated and had tremendous quality. It showed when you focus and concentrate and you are on the same page, working to the same objective, the quality is there. This is the first step we need to improve a lot; we need to be consistent.” Pochettino continued "I'm so happy for the team and happy to build for a really good 21 days, with six games ahead. I think it's important for the confidence of the team… The first half was like a recovery to make our fans feel proud of us and that's what we need to do."
Pochettino’s counterpart, Roy Hodgson, was quick to disregard the result and hold up his hands with his sides performance. "It's one of those games that we will just have to write off and learn from and hold our hands up and admit we were beaten by a better team…We came here hoping to play as well as they played, and we weren't capable of that. We found ourselves staring down the barrel of a gun at half time but fortunately the score line wasn't aggravated in the second half and we have been beaten 4-0…The fact is we mustn't get carried away with results. For us, it's going to be a very long, hard fight to stay in this league and there will be plenty of games like this where we play teams with power and intensity."
What’s next?
Tottenham travel to Greece to play Olympiakos on Tuesday as the opening fixtures of the Champions League season kick off. Crystal Palace on the other hand host Wolves in the Premier League next Sunday.
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